Between Marriage and Choice
by AkenJizo
Summary: Mito Uzumaki was sent to make a choice. It was one easily made.


Author's Note: I do not own Naruto or anything in it. It all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

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Ever since the time of the Sage of the Six Paths, the Senju and Uzumaki clans had been close allies. It wasn't too hard to understand why; the two clans shared a common ancestor, they both valued their comrades more than most clans, they both were considered abnormally powerful (the Senju had their monstrous chakra and range of skills, while the Uzumaki were naturals at seals and had the stamina of the Bijuu), and they both possessed a tenacity that only the Uchiha could hope to equal.

So it was no surprise that the Uzumaki clan was one of the first clans to be asked to join the budding village of Konohagakure. The natural kinship that the Senju had with the Uzumaki made it an obvious choice and the Uzumaki's skills would be a tremendous boon to any group they chose to join. Their joining Konoha would cement its place in the world, ensuring it would survive its turbulent formative years. An alliance with Konoha would also help ensure the Uzumaki's safety. It was a win-win.

Their refusal, therefore, was the last thing anyone had anticipated. They had no interest in leaving their ancestral home, not even for a friend as close as the Senju. Nothing their comrades could say would convince them to leave. Instead of joining Konoha itself, they proposed to found their own village and form an alliance instead. It was to be sealed through the marriage of Mito Uzumaki and one of Konoha's three leaders. Any of the three would be acceptable.

There was, of course, the Hokage himself, Hashirama Senju. The man was a prodigy unlike any other, commonly said to be second only to the Sage of the Six Paths himself. The man known as the "God of Shinobi" was a living legend, and any clan that could claim relation to him was blessed beyond measure. Anyone who could gain the title of "God" was certainly an enticing prospect. He was, perhaps, a bit too idealistic, but he had a conviction that was second to none. He was a man of surprisingly normal stature and brownish skin, though he held himself with the dignity one would expect from the strongest man in the world. His straight black hair extended down to his waist, his black eyes shown with vitality and purpose, and his face was set in a determined…so said the stories, anyway. His simple heavy red armor was almost as legendary as the man himself, though during peacetime he mostly wore the simple green shirt and blue hakama covered by a light tan coat.

Secondly, there was the Hokage's younger brother, Tobirama Senju. Though the man lacked the optimism of Hashirama, he possessed a sharp and logical mind, prizing pragmatism above all other merits. He was easily the strongest Water Style user in the world, and he was a brilliant inventor of jutsu that had never so much as been hinted at before. If Hashirama was Konoha's heart, Tobirama was unquestionably its mind. The man looked so different from his brother that there had been many rumors over the years that they did not come from the same mother. The albino, pale skinned man stood at roughly equal height with his brother, his face perpetually set in a stoically fierce expression. His grey hair stood unruly and spiked atop his head, and his blue armor with white fur lining on the neck was almost as famous as his brother's simple red. In peacetime, he merely wore a simple black shirt and black pants.

Lastly, there was Madara Uchiha. As the only man who could claim to be Hashirama's equal with any seriousness, Madara was immediately a viable candidate. The fact that he was the head of the Uchiha clan, possessor of the Sharingan and a clan of prodigies, only made him all the more worthy of consideration. His arrogance was unquestionable, but for the most part, he was able to back that arrogance up with sheer skill and might. In addition, the Uchiha were renowned for how brightly their emotions burned. If Madara ever devoted himself to a person, he'd care for that person beyond all other things. The Uchiha clan head was as youthful looking as Tobirama and Hashirama, his own black hair being spiked, wild, and untamed. His eyes were normally a dull solid black except for whenever he activated his sharingan. He wore a full-body purple coat with a high neckline and orange sash, underneath which he wore a black shirt and pants. In times of war, however, he'd taken to wearing the same armor that Hashirama had made so famous.

The three men had agreed to the alliance, deciding that it could only aid their cause (that and Hashirama point blank refused to snub a friend, no matter what). The choice of who would be the groom was, ultimately, up to Mito Uzumaki herself. So, naturally, she'd traveled to Konoha to see them for herself.

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Tobirama Senju couldn't understand her. He understood why this would help the Uzumaki, certainly (and privately he believed that it helped them far more than it helped Konoha), but he couldn't understand the Uzumaki woman. She was aggravatingly agreeable, even while denying your point had any merit at all. Lady Mito gathered information on the three of them, but she never resorted to outright spying on them or manipulating them.

The burning question in his mind whenever he considered her was why? The Uzumaki's angle was clear, but what was Lady Mito's reason for going along with this? The brother of the Hokage had trouble believing that she was here merely for the sake of her clan, but he couldn't see any way Lady Mito personally benefitted from this farce. Was it the opportunity to gain some semblance of control over Konoha? No, she wouldn't require marriage for something like that, as long as she could sufficiently endear herself to the Hokage.

Ostensibly, Lady Mito was here to decide whether she would marry Tobirama, his brother, or the Uchiha. However, anyone who had eyes could see she'd already made her choice (unless they were criminally oblivious, like Hashirama). She'd made her choice the moment she'd seen the three of them. Whether that choice was harmless or malevolent…that was the red-eyed Senju's main concern, and the fact that he still had no answer was troubling indeed.

The first time the two of them had spoken, Lady Mito had been the very model of politeness, while Tobirama had been the unwavering iceberg of honesty he always was. They'd discussed the general workings of the village, their views on certain matters, and in the end, they'd both said a great deal while revealing nothing. They hadn't lied; they'd simply not given the answers they'd been trying to extract from each other.

She was an unknown quantity, and thus, she was a danger to Konoha until she proved beyond a shadow of a doubt otherwise. It wasn't like he could have her assassinated (yet), but he would be watching her like a hawk. He hoped, in his heart of hearts, that the bride-to-be would prove him wrong and not force his hand. He expected, however, that she would reveal her true colors soon, and when that happened...well. They would see. If she proved to be beneficial to the village, he'd allow her presence. If she wasn't, then he would do what needed to be done.

All that mattered was the village. The village was the keystone upon which all their dreams depended on. He would stain his soul as often as he had to in order to ensure its survival and prosperity. It was all he could do.

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Madara didn't like her.

He didn't like her face, he didn't like her attitude, he didn't like her constant smile (which he was convinced was fake), he didn't like the way she held herself with that false deference of hers, he didn't like her stupid hair, and he didn't like…anything about her, really. Everything that made Uzumaki who she was (or at least, who she presented herself to be) offended the head of the Uchiha clan on a personal level.

It didn't help that she monopolized Hashirama's free time. God damn it woman, the man did have friends beyond you! Hashirama, for his part, was too much of a good-hearted buffoon to turn her away, so he continued to spend every free moment with this woman who had no business being in their village in the first place. It was so infuriating!

Beyond that though, Madara just couldn't bring himself to believe that Uzumaki was good enough for his best friend/platonic life partner. Pretty much nobody but Hashirama, the moron, believed that she was still deliberating over her choice, but she'd chosen beyond her station. She faked everything about herself, she had no skills he'd write home about besides sealing jutsu, and…okay, maybe she was sort of pretty, but certainly not enough to be worthy of the god damn Hokage! Hashirama deserved the best, and Uzumaki simply didn't meet Madara's extremely rigorous standards.

It was her choice though. They'd all agreed to that, and the master of the sharingan had never cursed that clause more than he did now. He swore to the heavens he was going to kill the Uzumaki brat. He mostly wasn't quite serious with that oath, but he wouldn't exactly be wracked with grief if something of that sort had to be done. The greatest of the Uchiha had the sneaking suspicion that the Brother Murdering Bastard (a.k.a. Tobirama) had the same idea. That concept made him slightly sick, but he'd accept it for now; Hashirama's safety was more important than Tobirama's worthlessness.

Regardless, the fact of the matter was that Uzumaki wasn't good enough, and it seemed like Hashirama was incapable of seeing that. Oh, the arguments the two had had over this very subject. Madara would be surprised if there had been a single person in Konoha who hadn't heard their shouting. No matter how much he tried to make his dearest friend see reason, Hashirama stood his ground; the Hokage had given his word and he was planning to keep it. That was that, and if Madara didn't like it, too bad. Hashirama's sheer stubbornness was one of his best qualities, but in situations like this, it just drove Madara insane! Could he not see what a vicious harpy she was pretending to not be?!

Well, if Hashirama said not to do anything, Madara would listen…for now. But his patience could only stretch so far. He didn't trust her, he didn't like her, and everyday it just got worse. One of these days, he was going to snap at the woman, and Uzumaki had better hope to hell she can take his ire. If she couldn't, she'd be burned away completely, just as a leaf in a forest fire. He would make sure of it.

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Hashirama wasn't stupid. He might be a bit naive, but he certainly wasn't lacking in intelligence. He knew exactly what his brother and best friend thought of Mito, even those parts of their opinions that they had actually bothered to keep to themselves. They believed (or perhaps merely feared) her to be duplicitous, traitorous, and ruinous. They thought she would try to destroy him, or that she was planning the village harm.

He disagreed.

Where they saw trickery, he saw honesty; where they saw deceit, he saw truth; where they saw treachery, he saw loyalty. The difference between the three of them was that they believed there was something behind Mito that she wasn't allowing them to see, some dark secret she was hiding. The God of Shinobi believed that she was a brilliantly honest person who might not reveal some things about herself, but who never outright lied to anyone. Tobirama and Madara believed her politeness and smile to be false, but to him, they seemed just as genuine as his own.

Hashirama had been reading people for years, and though he couldn't claim to know everything about her, he knew enough to know she was trustworthy. That was why he allowed her to walk so freely within his own home, why he spoke to her as a friend instead of a host to a guest, and why he wished Tobirama and Madara would just hurry up and stop trying to see something that simply wasn't there. Mito wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and she was going to marry one of the three of them, so they should just suck it up and accept it. It might not be the best situation, but at the very least, they could try to be friendly. He didn't think that was asking for too much.

Moreover, the more the Hokage watched her, the more he realized just how uncomfortable with this situation she was. It had gotten to the point that he now seriously doubted this entire situation had anything to do with her, and far more to do with the Uzumaki clan elders. It was clear to him that, if she had her way, she would never have set foot in Konoha. At least, not like this.

So he'd resolved that, if Ms. Uzumaki wasn't here by choice, then he should at least make sure her time here was as pleasant as he could make it. After all, he was the Hokage. Making sure important guests were well-cared for was a part of his duties. And if it helped to acclimate her to the village and the villagers, all the better.

Hashirama was not stupid. He simply believed in the inherent goodness within people. As long as that was the case, he would never turn away a friend in need. That's just who he was.

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Mito Uzumaki liked all three of Konoha's most important figures. Two of them may not have returned the sentiment, but that was fine. She believed that they would get used to her once they finally accepted her presence. It wasn't like she was all that happy about the current situation either, but she made do with the hand life had dealt her.

As Hashirama had surmised, Mito was deeply uncomfortable with this entire situation, but not quite for the reasons he thought. The village and its people were lovely, and if she had a choice, she probably would have decided to live here voluntarily. Then again, if she had a choice, Mito might not have ever seen Konoha. No, it was not the village or anything in it (not even her two biggest doubters) that caused her foul feeling.

It was the simple fact that all of this was never supposed to happen.

Mito was, in her humble opinion, a decent looking individual. She was as youthful as any of her prospective husbands, her red hair held in two buns on the side of her head. The sealing tag earrings hanging from said buns had drawn some scorn, but she liked them quite a bit, so they were not going anywhere. Mito preferred to wear a simple blue robe underneath a slightly fancier white one, with a black sash tied around her stomach. A diamond mark rested on her forehead, hiding vast stores of chakra within it. All in all, she felt she looked every bit an acceptably pleasant-looking young woman. Perhaps she wasn't the model of divine beauty so many aspired to, but she was quite satisfied with what she'd been given.

She was also of a marriageable age, a fact which the clan elders had been harping at her about for a fair few years now. She rejected every suitor they tried to force on her. She would marry who she loved. The proud Uzumaki woman would not settle for less than that.

One day, Mito's frustration at their needling and machinations had finally exploded, and she said that if they couldn't get an arranged marriage out of one of the most powerful men in the world, then they should just not bother. She had meant it as a means of finally ending the constant marriage arrangements they tried to shove down her throat.

They had taken it as a challenge. She didn't know what black sorcery they used to convince the three most powerful men from the single most powerful organization in the world to such a ridiculous agreement, but they had, and now Mito was trapped by her word. They had gotten not one, but three of the most powerful men on the planet to agree to be her prospective choice of husband. She was honor bound to marry one of them now. She had never cursed her poor choice of words so much.

Mito Uzumaki would rather die than admit that this entire debacle was nothing more than a mistake on her part, so she tried to hide her discomfort as best she could. She tried to be as honest as she could, and she never allowed herself to lie. She didn't exactly spill her guts either, however, which did nothing to endear her to Lord Tobirama and Lord Madara.

Despite their blatant distrust and hostility, Mito did still like her two biggest detractors. She even admired them. She most certainly understood why they could only barely tolerate her presence. They were merely worried that she was a threat to Lord Hashirama and the Konoha. She couldn't blame them for their hostility. She only hoped she could gain their trust in time.

Lord Tobirama was the moon to Lord Hashirama's sun. More often than not, he was the one who put the dreams of Lord Hashirama and Lord Madara into practice. He was the man behind the formation of the infrastructure, he was the one who handled the darker side of running the village, and he was the one who kept his idealistic brother grounded in the reality. It was clear to anyone who cared to look that Lord Hashirama needed his brother as much as he needed his own heart.

Unfortunately, Mito simply couldn't bring herself to imagine being by his side for the rest of their lives. It was for a single, exceedingly simple reason: Lord Tobirama had a problem of prioritizing the village so much that he failed to account the people that made it, treating them as another asset to be assigned and exploited. While it could be argued that it allowed him more pragmatic options, she simply couldn't bring herself to love a man in that way who failed to realize that people were people.

Lord Madara, in stark contrast to Lord Tobirama, was a genius who lived between dreams and reality. He was able to see the darkness of the world far more easily than Lord Hashirama, but he also shared in the latter's dreams and helped to form them with the same zeal. The camaraderie that he and Lord Hashirama shared was as brotherly as the bond between Lords Hashirama and Tobirama, and honestly, Mito found herself a bit jealous over how comfortable they were with each other. And while his unbridled arrogance was, perhaps, a bit grating, she had to admire his pride in himself. The Lady of the Uzumaki had to admit that she was rather intimidated by his sharingan, the red iris' and black tomoe patterns of the kekkei genkai unnerving her with their cold ruthlessness. Despite that, though he might hide it behind his bluster, Mito could tell he also cared for the people of the village so much it wouldn't surprise her if he believed they were all his children.

That belief obviously did not extend to her. Even if she could get past his amazingly unappealing brash, arrogant, and demeaning attitude, Lord Madara hated her too much for her to even pretend the two of them had a chance of working. She'd dismissed the idea almost immediately, although she did truly wish they could at least be pleasant acquaintances.

Lord Tobirama, Lord Madara, and Lord Hashirama were all good people who cared deeply for those they ruled over. However, while she liked all three men, the only one she could see herself loving was Lord Hashirama. The Hokage of Konohagakure was the only one of the three who was unapologetically kind, gentle, optimistic, caring, and honest. He was the only one who went out of his way to make Mito feel not only welcome, but wanted. He didn't judge her, he didn't doubt her, he didn't think she was planning to harm him or his. He saw how awkward this entire situation was to her, despite her efforts, and he had done his best to accommodate the flustered Uzumaki.

Lord Tobirama and Lord Madara looked at her as shinobi and saw a potential enemy. Lord Hashirama looked at her as a person and saw a friend.

Mito didn't love him. Not yet. She was pretty sure she was crushing on him, considering how her heart skipped a beat whenever he shot that goofy grin her way, but she couldn't call that love. She definitely could see herself falling for the "God", however. Beneath all of the legends and mythos surrounding him, he was a very lovable dope who just so happened to be stronger than anyone else. She had been sent here to make a choice, but in truth, there was no choice at all. Of the three, it could only have been Lord Hashirama.

Mito wasn't quite ready to admit that yet. She still had issues with marrying the Lord Hokage. While he was a very lovely man, she was a woman who wanted at least a grudging respect for the skills she'd spent a lifetime perfecting. If she married Lord Hashirama, would she be able to get that from anyone but him, or would she forever be known afterward as merely the wife of Hashirama Senju? There was also the simple fact of the matter that, no matter how much of a goofball he showed he was, he was still the man known of the "God of Shinobi". By all accounts, it was a reputation he'd earned. Mito tried her best to look at Hashirama as he was, but he had such a fearsome reputation that there was still a bit of nervousness, despite her best efforts.

She would simply have to wait and see. Mito Uzumaki was nothing, if not patient. When she was ready, she would reveal her choice. Whatever happened next…well, that depended entirely on Lord Hashirama, she supposed.

She smiled softly. Somehow, that was an extremely comforting thought.


End file.
